Walking
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: "Come on, Artemis. Nobody wanders out in the middle of the night without even thinking about a jacket."


**A/N: Another one for my Facebook fan who got the quote of the week. A Spitfire was requested and a Spitfire shall be granted (: You know who you are.**

**Disclaimer: Nope.**

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><p><span>Walking<span>

The winter wind bit at her skin as she wrapped her thin jacket around her body tighter, wishing the cold would just go away. It was easily below freezing, but she didn't have any heavier coats and the scarf she'd thrown around her neck wasn't helping as much as she'd hoped it would.

Artemis rubbed her hands together before shoving them back in her pockets, feeling the warmth of renewed blood flow come back to her fingertips.

She just didn't want to be home right now. She didn't want to be dealing with it. And if she had to be walking around outside in below freezing temperatures just to avoid confrontation, so be it. Artemis wasn't in the mood to handle situations like this. She just wanted to wait for the whole thing to blow over before returning home, but she knew it could take all night, and then where would she go? Sleeping wasn't the problem, it was just getting out of the cold and keeping from turning into a human popsicle; it was supposed to be even colder at midnight according to the weatherman.

Another hard gust of wind buffeted her to one side, making her wince against the stabbing of the the icy wind whipping at her exposed face and wrists. And the wind came back, bringing a boy in an orange jacket to her attention. "Artemis?"

Gray-blue eyes taking him in, she pushed past him and kept on walking. She had to keep her blood moving somehow. Walking would do it.

Wally caught up with her in a heartbeat, his green gaze slightly shocked at seeing her in Gotham City, but more shocked to see her out in the cold like this. Last Dick had told him, it was below zero. He knew she wouldn't last long in this weather. "What are you doing out here?" he asked, already over his split-second realization of her residence.

"I had to get out. Fresh air." His words had barely gotten to her ears, but she'd heard him well enough.

Wally was padding alongside of her in a heartbeat, his footsteps feeling like lead. He could read between the lines of her harsh tone: family issues. The speedster was no fool. "Fresh air that'll give you hypothermia maybe," he snorted before grabbing her wrist, causing her to stop. "Come on, let's get you back home." Not like he knew where she lived, but maybe if he got her going in the right direction-

Jerking out of his grasp, Artemis kept walking, kept moving. She just didn't want to stop; running away from it all, from home, felt good. Finally, she was escaping the oppression that had held her prisoner since her childhood. She wasn't escaping family forever, but she was certainly getting away from him. "Don't touch me, Wally."

For a moment, he was stunned. Then hurt. The determined. A quick sprint got him back to her side, and he continued, "Your parents are going to be worried. They'll probably come looking for you."

"No, they won't. And if they do, they won't find me." Artemis kept her head low, trying to avoid looking to Wally at all costs. Just his presence was pushing her buttons and messing with her head. She had to straighten stuff out, that's why she'd ducked out. Her dad was hanging around again and she had to figure out how to deal with him before the situation got ugly. "Just leave me alone."

He was stung but wouldn't let it show. "I want to help you. You'll freeze out here. I'll take you to Robin's place, you can warm up there." That was, if Dick was home and if Bruce didn't mind letting Artemis know the identities of the Dynamic Duo...

"I need air."

"It's too cold!" His voice raised and eyes serious, Wally took her wrist again and pulled her to a halting stop. "I'm not letting you kill yourself out here." He wasn't taking no for an answer. Not even all of her martial arts could make up for his superspeed. Wally began to pull her along taking his gloves out of his pockets and shoving them at her. "If you're gonna try to get away for a while, you should really take the weather into consideration. Just a mental note for future reference."

Realistically, she could've cried for help and not even a phone call to the police would've been made. It was Gotham. And she had no defense against Wally. She was too tired; it was near midnight and she'd spent most of the day tending to her bow and fixing the frayed string. While mending the strap on her quiver after a screw up with an arrow tip. "Please let me go."

"Put on the gloves."

Her initial adrenaline rush of the escape was fading down to a numb anger that was still coursing through her, but the initial heat of the fight-or-flight reaction had worn off, leaving her cold and exposed to the elements; Artemis obeyed. Normally, she wouldn't be so submissive, especially not to _Wally_, but he was serious about it, not ready to take her usual crap. "Thanks."

He was already shrugging out of his own coat to put it over her shoulders. "No problem." Wally had already released her wrist, but she didn't make a move to run. She pulled his coat around her shoulders and kept on walking.

The wind kept taking stabs at them, whipping her blonde hair around like a child shaking a ragdoll. And, disliking the quiet, he asked softly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about." She kept his jacket tight around her, the smell of old tacos coming off of it, a bit strange and yet a comfort at the same time. Artemis watched the sidewalk ahead, counting the cracks and how many of them Wally stepped on.

He knew better than that; he pressed. "Come on, Artemis. Nobody wanders out in the middle of the night without even thinking about a jacket." He looked her over, her tattered jeans, her sneaker-clad feet. She didn't even look like this on a slacker day at the cave. "You're running from something."

"I'm not running from anything," she insisted, voice sharp and firm. She didn't want to deal with him. He was annoying on a normal day, but having him even in the same vicinity as her while she was miserable was like waiting for a bomb to go off. "I just needed air."

"Liar." He took a stinging glare from her before looking off to the street as a car drove past with a broken headlight, the yellow beam flashing off of fractured windows. Wally gave her a soft look. "You can talk to me, you know. I won't judge."

She kept on walking. "I don't need to talk." The archer wanted to snap at him but couldn't find it in her heart to do so. After all, it _was_ his coat wrapped around her shoulders. Artemis's blue-gray gaze flickered to Wally.

"Alright." Hands up in surrender, he shook his head. "Whatever you say." The redhead didn't believe a word of it, but he figured he could give her the benefit of the doubt.

She shivered against the cold but gave her companion a grateful look. "Thanks, Baywatch."

A smirk lit up his face as another car drove past. He stretched his arms out before lacing his hands together behind his head. A cocky look caught his visage. "It's what teammates are for, Arty."

"I will push you in the street if you call me that again."

He took one step away from her, making sure to keep the distance. "Fair enough."

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><p><strong>AN: Review?**

**~Sky**


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